Help with keywords

[Canay]

Please forgive me for being so ignorant on this subject. Per Mario's recommendation I've read the help file, read many. many posts, read the help file again, read more posts and I realize that keywords are a very complicated subject well over my head. I would chose not to deal with them but I realize that my categories are great for me. I use them everyday. But they are not so great for anyone else who doesn't have IMatch. So I want to add info to the metadata that would be helpful. I'm doing this because I recently inherited my mother in laws photos and don't have a clue who is in them, what the date is, etc.

Here is what I played around with today:
When the images are indexed into IMatch, my name goes in as the author and in the copyright field automatically. That worked fine.

After the images are indexed I rename them with a descriptive word after the camera's image number. Such as IMG-1234-Hot Air Balloon. I then use a metadata template to add this to the Title. That worked fine.

Then in the Metadata Panel I type in a description. Such as "This was the view from my kitchen window this morning". That worked fine.

Then in the category panel I check the category Things|Everyday Life|Hot Air Balloon This is what I've always done.

Does IMatch automatically apple the Hot Air Balloon @Keyword or do I need to either check the @Keyword Hot Air Balloon or open the keyword panel and type the word Hot Air Balloon in?

Thanks.

[Mario]

The @Keyword category is a special category because it is linked with the hierarchical keywords in your files.
If you assign a file to a child category of @Keywords, the corresponding keyword will be added to your file automatically. You can always check this in the Keyword Panel.

When you use the Keyword Panel to add/edit keywords in your files, IMatch mirrors this automatically to the @Keywords category hierarchy. Adding a keyword like WHO|Me to a file will assign the file to the @Keywords|WHO|Me category as well.